Tom Sawyer spoons a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream into a cup and pours a shot of cold coffee concentrate over it.

“It’s like coffee candy. It has a sweet, rich flavor,” Sawyer says of the cold-brewed coffee he makes in his Toddy maker.

Named after its designer, Todd Simpson, the Toddy maker brewing device once popular in the 1970s and ’80s is making a comeback.

“It’s really versatile,” says Sawyer, the owner of a Hangman Valley coffee roasting company called Tom Sawyer Country Coffee.

For less than 70 cents a serving, you can make an iced coffee drink at home complete with whipped cream that rivals those made by professional baristas, he says.

Place coffee grounds in the plastic base, which has a wool filter and plug at the bottom, add cold water and let it sit for 12 hours. Afterward, the resulting concentrate, or Toddy coffee, is drained into a glass storage carafe.

“When we brew with hot water, we extract all of the acidity,” Sawyer explains. “With cold water – soaking the coffee – we extract full levels of flavor and caffeine but less than 85 percent of the acidity.”

The result, according to Toddy fans, is a smooth, sweet cold brew far superior to simply brewing a hot pot of java and letting it cool.

It can be stored in the refrigerator for several weeks and used for iced coffees, lattes, or frozen into cubes for later use. Since it is concentrated, the flavor holds well in iced drinks and can also be used to make a cup of hot coffee by adding hot water to a shot of toddy.

“The concentrate is so much richer in flavor that you can have a small amount and it’s very refreshing and a great pick-me-up,” says Sawyer, who has developed a special low-acid blend of Sumatran beans specifically for use in the Toddy maker.

Traditional-style iced coffee

If a $39 Toddy maker isn’t in your budget, or you simply don’t want any more gadgets cluttering up your kitchen counter, don’t worry. You can make a delicious iced coffee drink the old-fashioned way.

The key to the Toddy maker, says Thomas Hammer, owner of Thomas Hammer Coffee Roasters, is the length of time the coffee grounds and water are in contact. Also, the increased ratio of coffee to water (compared to regular brews) helps provide the strong, concentrated flavor.

Hammer suggests using a relatively mild, less acidic coffee for iced coffee: “Look for Central American coffees, or a breakfast blend. Stay away from French Roast or African.

“The best thing someone could do (without using a Toddy maker) is to use a traditional drip coffee maker,” he adds.

Fill the filter with as much coffee as you can without it overflowing, and brew a pot with 60 percent of the water normally used, Hammer suggests.

“You basically create a stronger cup of coffee,” he says. The resulting brew can be chilled in the fridge and served over ice.

You can also take a large Tupperware container filled with a pound of ground coffee and nine cups of water and let it sit overnight. Drain the concentrated coffee into a container through a sieve lined with coffee filters or a pour-over coffee filter like a Melita.

Deborah Di Bernardo, owner of Roast House Coffee in Spokane, is a big fan of cold-brew coffee.

“It’s instantly available (once brewed) and the acidity is exceptionally low,” she says. She favors the Toddy maker because its wool filter gives “the clearest, nicest concentrate without the chewable texture.”

Using a French press coffee maker with a little extra coffee will work, she says, but you’ll need to filter it afterward through a filter basket perched over a container to remove the sediment.

No matter which method of cold brewing you use, Di Bernardo recommends allowing 20 hours of brewing time (longer than most suggest) for maximum flavor extraction, although “it’s definitely to taste.”

When Di Bernardo first started making cold-brewed coffee on a large scale, she used part of an unbleached sheet filled with coffee and immersed it in water. On a small scale, use a cloth filter called a tea sock or other nonbleached fabric like a muslin tea towel, fill it with coffee and immerse it in cold water.

Thai iced coffee is popular at her north Spokane restaurant as well. Phonthip brews a big batch of iced coffee by adding imported Thai coffee powder (called Oliang) to boiling water and straining the brew through a cloth filter.

In addition to coffee beans, Thai coffee powder contains ground corn, soy beans and sometimes sesame, giving it a mild nutty flavor. You’ll find it at Asian markets along with the cloth strainer to brew it.

She sweetens it with sugar and stores the cold brew in the fridge, adding ice and half-and-half before serving.

Put the ice cubes in a 16-ounce cup. Add the coffee and flavored syrup. Top with milk to fill cup. Stir and top with whipped cream.

Yield: 1 serving.

Baci Italia

Courtesy of Deborah Di Bernardo, Roast House Coffee. “It means Italian kiss and it’s my favorite way to use cold-brewed coffee,” says Di Bernardo who likes to garnish this dish with fresh raspberries from her garden.